6 Reasons Why You Should Serve Tables As A Recent College Grad

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Let’s face it, there are only a limited amount of companies that actually hire people directly out of college, and if you’re like me, we were not lucky enough to use our three professional connections to find them. I was the person who refused to wait tables their entire life because I thought I was better than that, but the joke’s on me. No one is too good to wait tables, and the money is actually much better than any other job I’ve ever had… ever. If you postpone real life a little while longer and take up a serving job, these reasons will guarantee your life is just a little bit better than your friends’ lives, friends who were hired right after graduation and currently reside in a cubicle.

1. Oh, So You Want To Go To Colorado For A Week?

Well, if you have a big kid job you’ll have to pass up this opportunity to ride those perfectly powdered slopes in Aspen because your Paid Time Off (PTO) doesn’t start to kick in for the next six months or even a year. If you’re waiting tables though, all you have to do is tell them two weeks in advance that you got shit to do and you won’t be able to work. If your restaurant is as awesome as mine, all you have to do is write “NO BRITT” on the calendar and not talk to anyone about it at all.

2. Damn, You Have A Bill Due Next Week and You Need Money ASAP?

Luckily, we who wait tables are usually able to make the money we need to pay off our credit card bills during a single weekend and have the cash at hand right away, much unlike those who work 9-5 and have to wait two weeks or even a month to even see their paychecks. Not only does this allow our credit scores to blow through the roof, it also allows us to heavily stock our savings accounts when we finally snag a job and want to move out of our parents’ house.

3. There’s a 3-Day Music Festival This Weekend and You NEED To Go.

You’ve been scheduled to work this weekend, but your friends are all going to a 3-day music festival that is going to be the highlight of their lives and you can’t miss out. Fortunately as a server, there is at least one coworker who needs to pay their bills next week so they would be more than happy to cover your shifts for you. If you have a real job, there is no way in hell you can get out of work for it because you have two sick days available for the whole year and you need a doctor’s note to prove your menstrual cramps, end of story.

4. You Just Really Don’t Feel Like Dealing With People Today.

I don’t know about you, but some days I just want to stay home and watch terrible horror movies on Netflix from the time I wake up until I go to sleep. When you work 9-5 jobs, you have no choice but to go to work and deal with your annoying coworkers, dick manager, and pain in the ass clients each and every day. Sure, you don’t want to answer the phone constantly, but you have no choice because that’s what you were hired to do full-time. If you’re serving tables, you can actually get out of work with a simple phone call to your closest serving coworker who, as mentioned previously, probably wants to make money, anyway.

5. Experience!

Besides being able to get out of work, go on vacation, and make the money you need to pay your bills and still have fun, waiting tables brings the type of experience that actually helps build your resume. Employers value serving experience because it shows your ability to multi-task in a fast pace environment. This is beneficial in any work environment because you will always have a shit ton of tasks to accomplish quickly, and if you have this experience, you are already ahead in the big kid world. Serving experience also informs employers that you have dealt with every kind of asshole. Since these people are commonly dealt with in every workplace, employers will be interested in how you dealt with them. If you serve tables, you will have plenty of stories to back up how professional you were when a customer acted like a dick to you because they ordered fried shrimp when they really meant to order crab cakes.

6. Were You Actually Ready To Work 9-5 Every Day, Anyway?

As a recent college grad, you still have a million social events to attend, and if you are stuck working full-time right after graduation, there is no way you’ll be able to make any of them with limited sick days and no vacation or PTO until you have a solid work year under your belt. Sure, you have student loans and other bills to pay, but you will make more than enough and still be able to live the life of a 20-something as a server. There’s no rush to join the big kid world, because once you’re in it, you can never leave. So avoid all cubicles, because having a real job means you actually have to show up every day. You might work weekends as a server, but at least you get Monday through Thursday to lay around, eat White Cheddar Cheez-Its, and debate whether you feel like showering or not.